"Waking up I see that everything is okay..."

Not. 

I was in a daze when I dashed off to Wheeler for my UGBA midterm. I can't say that I prepared well for it because I pretty much slacked off the entire spring break =\ The midterm was well, as tough as I expected it to be. Accounting and Finance isn't so easy as I made it out to be initially. Ergo, I suck at business. This is my first business class and I don't really know how to study for it. And when you fit in all those business jargons and terms, I go crazy with all the definitions.

But enough said about a midterm that has been done with. My fingers now itch for a piano. I'm going crazy because I want to practise my Schubert Sonata and there's not a decent piano in sight. What the heck. I wish I could throw everything aside and fly back to my beloved Shigeru. I WANT TO PLAY THE PIANO ARGH.

True enough, the next Japanese novel that we're supposed to read for class is... the sickest "thus far". This time, it's not about suicide (*I hope* since I haven't gotten to the last part of the book), it's about spiritual possession of the body. The transition between the living and the dead... Right. I have no clue on how to go about writing the essay.

I really really want to go for Rotaract's cruise... but then I can't. With 2 midterms and 2 papers due... I must be a genius if I go. Lol. Too bad :(

I was trying to finish reading The Temple of the Golden Pavilion before Jap lecture tomorrow... but in the end I fell asleep. Oopsie. This book is crazier than The Setting Sun! Unbelievable, but true. Lol. Since the first chapter, the narrator has shown me his crazy thoughts and actions that make me go "HUH? WHAT!" all the way. This narrator believes that betrayal is beautiful... and he always fantasized about Uiko, this pretty girl, and "her body" as written in her book, until she died. What the heck. What a sick person! I think after finishing Jap 7B this semester, I'd have a totally new perspective on Japan and its culture when I visit it the next time.

I hope I could shake hands with Nobuo Uematsu some day. This person is truly a GENIUS. I'm replaying his works over and over again on my iPod and just appreciating them for his brilliance. Now I'm completely in love with FFIX's "You're Not Alone", this piece is just awesome! Especially the orchestral version performed by Tour De Japon. *sighs in bliss*

I spent my free time trying to optimize the configuration for FFVII on epsxe and FINALLY, I can enjoy the game without any glitches. All the FMV scenes looks great and the battle transitions don't lag at all! Perfect! :D Hopefully I can play FFX on my com soon :)

After reading The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai as assigned, I am shocked that there is a novel that has even more twisted characters than Kokoro's. In this book, I feel that every main character (except the mother) has a distorted immoral thinking of life. They seem to live for the sake of living, and I can't foresee any happiness happening in their lives at all. I can't tell you how shocked I am about Kazuko's letters to her "lover" because I was OMG-ing all the way from the letters till the end. As a Japanese woman of traditional culture, you could see how Kazuko defied such morals by her outrageous letters and insistence of becoming someone's lover. Between the two siblings, I don't know who is more crazy. One sees a baby as a revolution, an acute change to the then post-war society and repeatedly makes references to Socialism and Marxism (like woah. I thought during that period Japanese women were still meek and submissive. Since when did they know about such ideology?); the other gets addicted to Opium and later switched on to alcohol, drinks his life away and later commits suicide to end his suffering. I am unable to comprehend and fully understand his testament of his suicide except that he had grown up twisted and demented. Naoji's suicide was not really that unexpected, given that most of the books that I've read so far in this Jap class have dealt with suicide and given Naoji's attitude and actions in life have shown that such an ending is inevitable in some way. I guess Dazai wanted to show the social and moral crisis Japan was undergoing during post WWII, but the emotions and thoughts that the characters have throughout the book are just so demented and depressing.

If you want a different type of reading for a change, this book is for you. A milder version of a story with twisted characters would be Kokoro, and I definitely do prefer Kokoro to The Setting Sun. If anyone wants to give them a try, I could loan you the books because I doubt I would ever be reading them again (except for that looming midterm around the corner). Here are the Jap books I currently own:

Kokoro
Snow Country (This book was a Nobel prize winner!)
Makioka Sisters (This one is like a soap opera)
Naomi (Oh yeah, this one is damn twisted too)
The Setting Sun
Masks
Women in the Dunes
Black Rain
Lizard
After the Quake

All these books have varying degrees of perverseness and I enjoy bantering with anyone on how twisted the characters are. So if you have read any of them before, do tell me! :)

I got so fed up with my writer's block (I have to churn out an essay for The Setting Sun by tonight) that I went online shopping for a toner to smooth out my skin. Judging from the reviews, I decided to try out the rose version of Thayer's Witch Hazel toner! Hopefully it works just as well for me :) 

And now... back to the Setting Sun essay. Bleh.

Ahhh just returned from my UGBA midterm! I thought it was much much easier than module 1's one, prob cause Banks didn't really test much on the articles in the Reader. Wasted my time reading those articles :( Why is it that every time there is a UGBA midterm, it'll be raining? 

It's March! Time is flying by as usual. March means we're nearing Spring Break! Woohoo! I can't wait for that one week, well deserved break! :D Seriously, US needs to have more holidays. I want my breaks!